J 79 3. Crinan canal. J4T 



ON THE CRINAN CANAL. 



It is now once more in agitation to have a canal cut a- 

 crofs the isthmus of Cantire, from Crinan to loch Gilp, an 

 undertaking of such obvious utility, that it has been often 

 proposed, but always abandoned for want of funds to car- 

 ry it into execution. Whether these funds will now be 

 found I cannot pretend to say 5 but Mr Rennie, so well 

 known for his ikill in undertakings of this sort, has been 

 this summer employed to survey this, and some other pla- 

 ces upon the west coast of Scotland, by order of the society 

 for improving the Britifh fiftieries, from whose enterprises 

 it is to be hoped some good will result to the community. 



That our readers may form some idea of the utility of 

 this enterprise, let them be informed, in few words, that 

 Cantire, ("with Lorn,) is. a peninsula of nearly eight miles in 

 length, which separates loch Fine, at the head of which the 

 town of Inverary stands, from the Western Ocean. This pe- 

 ninsula, in scarcely any place, exceeds twenty miles in breadth) 

 but at one place in particular, Tarbat, it is so far indented, 

 by two arms of the sea from the opposite sides, as to leave 

 a neck of land of one mile only between them, and in ano- 

 other place, Crinan, the distance acrofs is only five 

 miles. 



The navigation on the west coast of this peninsula is 

 , mor^' hazardous than on any other part of the west coast of 

 Scotland, as it is in general a flat fhore without harbours ; 

 and the sea being boisterous round the Mull of Cantire it is 

 particularly dangerous to open boats j and as all the little 

 commerce of the Western Isles into the Clyde must at pre- 

 sent be carried on in such boats, scarcely a year pafses in 

 which some of these boats are not wrecked, and the sailors 

 drowned m this long and hazardeus voyage. 



